"Orochimaru! Thank goodness, we finally found you! I never expected you to be here!"
Jiraiya looked at Orochimaru excitedly and spoke in delight. They had actually been searching for Orochimaru all this time, but no matter how hard they looked, they couldn't find him. It was as if Orochimaru had already died.
They never expected Orochimaru to turn up here.
Orochimaru looked at the excited Jiraiya and Sarutobi Hiruzen and the others. The mocking expression on his face gradually faded, especially when he saw Sarutobi Hiruzen. He couldn't help sighing inwardly.
His teacher, Sarutobi Hiruzen, no longer looked anything like the Hokage he once was. He seemed so haggard and pathetic. And when he looked at Orochimaru, there was no longer any disappointment or pain in his eyes. Instead, there was relief—the sort of relief an old man felt when he saw a child from his family.
Seeing Sarutobi Hiruzen like this, Orochimaru inexplicably felt a wave of sorrow and heartache. After all, he was Orochimaru's teacher!
Just look at his teacher now: haggard and crippled, no longer possessing the imposing presence of the Shinobi Hero. He seemed to have aged more than ten years. He had even become a cripple, fitted with a toad's hand. How pitiful, how tragic!
The anger surging inside him gradually faded, and he slowly calmed down.
In truth, though he had never said it, Orochimaru knew he had been in the wrong. He really had betrayed his teacher's expectations by getting involved with Danzo and experimenting on the village's ninjas.
Although Orochimaru didn't care, he knew the truth. He wasn't an idiot. If human experimentation had been permitted in the village, he wouldn't have had to do it in secret. It was something he shouldn't have done. His teacher had already shown him the